Playing Around With Uncle Martin

Here are some fun shots I took when we got back to the house...

Kids Playing Like Gerbils

Today we went to an indoor playground. They had three levels of tubes, slides, tunnels and more. The kids and the adults had a blast! Even Brenna climbed up to the top (with a lot of help) squealing the whole time. Aidan was in full-blown monkey-mode. Chloe made new friends and was everywhere. Matt was a bit unsure but once he saw what the playground looked like, he was all over the place with the kids. Matt's brother, Martin, and his mom were there for the fun.

Matt quickly learned that he isn't as flexible as he wished he was. =)

Chloe loved the trampoline. Her pigtails went flying!

Brenna had a blast climbing up the tubes. That girl is fearless.

When we first got there Aidan was so excited, he didn't know what to do first.

Uncle Martin got into the playtime as well, going down the corkscrew slide with Chloe.


Matt and I played with Brenna, bouncing her on the trampoline. She loved that.


Here is Brenna crawling around the toddler area of the playground. She loved being able to climb over all the foam padding.

Matt had to try out the corkscrew slide as well. He took Aidan and Brenna all the way to the top and they came down laughing and squealing.



Matt spent a lot of time climbing with Brenna and Aidan. Both were up for a challenge and were willing to go through or cross just about anything. They are so adventurous.




Here I am resting before going back in.

Aidan helped Grandma get into the fun as well. This is her graceful exit out of one of the tunnels. =)



Matt and I spent some fun time with just Brenna on the trampoline while Aidan and Chloe were climbing through the maze of tunnels. Brenna had so much fun crawling around and bouncing in the air.




Chloe loved peeking through the windows on the third level.

The green slide was incredibly slippery and bumpy. Brenna was squirming all over the place, while we were going down the slide.

Brenna's First Steps

Brenna took her first steps yesterday and we managed to catch some of them on the new camera. You can hear her squeaky shoes in the video. She loves her squeaky shoes and loves to walk and make noise.

Spring Break, Yeah Right!

This is what we woke up to this morning. I thought we were on Spring Break?





Matt has been playing with the kids inside since we didn't bring snow gear. He was giving them lessons on how NOT to share.

Parenting Pop Quiz

For those of you who know our precious baby girl, you know how much our 'little angel' hates getting dressed. It usually takes two of us to get her ready for the morning. Getting her shoes on is even worse So while we were at Matt's dad house, Matt's sister Nicci was holding Brenna. Brenna managed to gleefully get her squeaky sneaker off. So Nicci went to put it back on her. No big deal, right? Ha! You bet Matt and I had a good laugh as we watched Nicci wrestle (and that is no exaggeration) the shoe back onto Brenna's foot.

Here is attempt number 1.

And here's attempt number 2. This time Nicci's husband Chris tried to help his wife out with the challenge:
Notice the headlock technique, sometimes effective, but not this time:

Chris decides to step in. Is it really that difficult to dress a baby? It is just a shoe.

Brenna, of course, just has to be helpful. Notice her trying to tie the shoes before it is even on her foot.

Nicci and Chris get smart and distract Brenna with the cap to her bottle. Does it mean success?

Not yet. Look at Brenna's face, I am sure she is thinking, "Haven't you figured this out yet?"

Back to the headlock technique:

Finally, success! The shoe is on and tied. Double knotted of course.

Now that the test has been passed, Brenna has to test for herself and see if she can get it off again.


Ahhh! The joys of parenting!

Saturday in Illinois

We spent Saturday hanging out with Matt's Dad, sister, brother-in-law, and other family and friends. It was a fun, relaxing day. The kids had a great time running around and just being silly.